London (AFP)

British author William Boyd said Thursday he discovered the house where James Bond lived in London - information never revealed by the creator of the character - by examining the life of Ian Fleming and his famous works.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Ian Fleming wrote a total of 14 books on James Bond, including two short stories, but never revealed the exact location where he lived, even though he had openly said that his charismatic agent Secret lived in the London area of ​​Chelsea.

After having re-read the entire series before writing his own sequel in 2013, in a novel entitled "Solo", William Boyd estimated Thursday in the Times literary supplement that the British spy lived in 25 Wellington Square, in Chelsea .

"This is where James Bond's apartment was located," said the writer, adding that James Bond being a fictional character, it was "obvious that he didn't really live somewhere", but that you could probably find the apartment which inspired the author.

To do this, he began by cross-checking the elements presented in various works in the series. In "Moonraker" (1955), Fleming portrayed James Bond's home as "a comfortable apartment overlooking a square planted with trees, next to King's Road", famous Chelsea Street.

William Boyd then used the description given in "Operation Thunder" (1961) that the apartment was not a short drive from Hyde Park to reduce its perimeter in Wellington Square.

In order to determine the exact number, the British author then looked into the personal life of Ian Fleming, focusing inter alia on his period as a journalist for the Sunday Times.

He then realized that one of his colleagues, the literary critic Desmond MacCarthy, lived at 25 Wellington Square. He and his wife were known to be "legendary trainers", who often received in their house "become a kind of living room".

"The evidence is convincing. It is very likely that Ian Fleming went to one or more of the MacCarthys' parties," said Boyd.

According to him, the couple's apartment did have a "long living room with large windows", as described in "Good Kisses from Russia" (1957), adding that if the spy's living room was described as "carpeted with books ", it was probably a nod to Desmond MacCarthy's profession.

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